Getting an extension - any experience or advice

[Househunter2025]

Hi hoping for some insight here.

I've been renting a house for a few years, have 2 young children, single parent. I've been looking for somewhere local to buy, a bit bigger than the current house as opposite sex kids will need their own rooms at some point.

Now the landlord has said he wants to sell our current home and given me first refusal. So obviously that would be a lot easier than moving. The issue is the house is smaller than ideal so I'd be looking to get an extension. There's space to do a 2 storey extension to the side, our neighbours have one which looks fine. Basically adding a double bedroom plus making bathroom bigger upstairs and equivalent extra space downstairs.

My total budget for buying a house is 285. I think this house would sell for about 200. Is it worth staying here and getting extension or would it actually be cheaper and or easier to move? I've heard horror stories about extensions taking years and costing a fortune!

Any thoughts or experience welcome.

In the north west of England

Architect here, I’m not in the northwest but I’m also not down south.

I think it’s very unlikely that you could do a 2 storey extension for 85k, a single storey extension perhaps. It would probably be cheaper to move into somewhere bigger.

IWould your landlord accept a lower price from you because it’s a very easy sale for them? There could be no chain and no estate agents fees.

Our two storey extension cost significantly more than that but for me, what was the toughest part, was living on a building site for a year. We lives in one room for the best part of 8 months and our son spent 6 months on a mattress on the floor in our bedroom. It really does affect your mental health. We extended as we had lived in our home for 10 years and settled. I wouldn’t buy a place to extend it unless you can live elsewhere whilst the works are taking place.

I'm afraid that it will cost more than you think as something will inevitably crop up. When we ha simple single storey extension we had the unexpected cost of replacing a large drainpipe that ran beneath the new room and replacing/ making smaller upstairs windows. We had a healthy contingency fund and that was used up.